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21
Under the provisions of these Acts 221 samples of Food, as
above, were submitted to the Public Analyst (Mr. Stokes), who
certified that 35 of them were adulterated. With the exception of
two samples of pepper and one of golden syrup all the adulterated
samples consisted of dairy produce, milk and butter. Year after
year it has to be reported that the dairy trade stands first in dishonest
dealing. Margarine fraudulently sold to the working people
of this district at butter prices, and milk—the food of invalids and
children—diluted. A remarkable thing is that a large majority of the
regular defaulters profess to be persons of Welsh extraction, and in
some instances they have carried the imitation so far as to profess a
difficulty in speaking our language. Whatever the reason for this may
be, they most persistently carry on one of the meanest forms of
cheating, and have backed it up more than once with gross perjury
at the Police Court. For purposes of information, I have on various
occasions (with the assistance of Inspector Mills) caused a large
number of purchases beyond above samples to be made at certain
of their shops, with the result that it has been ascertained beyond
all doubt that it is quite immaterial what price the customer pays;
he is served with a "dollop" of margarine mixture from behind
the marble slab whether he asks for "a quarter of one-and-two,"
"two ounces of shilling," or "six ounces of eightpenny," indeed,
during one Saturday afternoon and evening we obtained by means
of different agents at one shop every price from "sixpenny" to
"sixteen-penny salt," and each and every agent was served from
the self-same place, apparently from the same tub.
The same applies to the extra weight, or "dollops" as they are
termed. It has often been said by the apologists of these traders,
that although they sold a mixture containing no butter fat at butter
prices they give extra weight, apparently implying that four ounces
of stones may be a fair trading substitute for two of bread. But
here, again, the whole thing is an unmitigated fraud, four ounces of
is. 2d. butter being nothing more nor less than six ounces of
margarine, which could have been sold honestly, and with fair profit,
at about 6d. or 8d. per pound. All this being so, it may fairly be
asked by persons not conversant with the tricks of the trade, Why
does not the local authority stop it ? Like a great many other things,
this is easier said than done, for these pseudo Welsh dairymen have
very ingeniously learnt the technicalities of the Food and Drugs
Act, and know by wide experience that a fairly large volume of
fraudulent dealing can be carried on inside the four corners of an